Brendan McCurdy: On being diversified, strategic and cautious

It is very difficult, if not impossible, for most investors to predict the outperformance of a given asset class in a given year. Do US equities, for example, outperform in the long run? In the last few years they have. But, as the chart below shows, this trend turns out to be different from longer-term history. Long-term allocation choices ought to be based on more than the recent past - and history tells us that investors who limit themselves this way may miss out on potentially attractive investment opportunities. Indeed, the historical performance of major asset classes underscores t...